


progression

by ewagan



Series: Sportsfest 2018 [22]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-05
Updated: 2018-08-05
Packaged: 2019-06-22 03:20:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15572592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ewagan/pseuds/ewagan
Summary: how to fall in love: a guide.





	progression

**Author's Note:**

> most likely to fall in love at a distance: filler's pick  
> prompt [here](https://sportsfest.dreamwidth.org/10320.html?thread=1672016#cmt1672016)

how to fall in love: a guide.

_step one, find someone to love_  
or, don't look. you never set out to fall in love with anything more than the ball in your hands, the stretch of your muscles, the sharp, dizzying lights of sun streaming in the skylights, the bright lights that hurt your eyes. your love is the scuffed wooden floor of the gym, the squeak of your shoes, the solidity of your palm hitting the ball in a spike that leaves silence in its wake. your love is not meant to be a boy who hasn't smiled at you in two years, who you don't really recognise anymore. he is a stranger in the shape of someone you once knew, familiar and foreign in a way you are only too aware of. do not think of the way you once happened across him, half made of winter sunlight and cold breeze, the slight curve of a smile that couldn't have been meant for you.

_step two, get to know them._  
what do you know of kunimi akira that isn't made of air salonpas and caught in the folds of a volleyball net? nothing. he is folded between the leaves of his school notebooks, borrowed light novels, days stitched together with sharp insight. you knew what he could have been, but you never knew _him_. what do you know now, besides the fact you've never seen him like this before? reframe him, put him in a different place, a different setting. what will you learn about him when he is ink across a page, a figure walking home alone, the space between this moment and the next?

_step three--_  
there is no step three here. you don't need to imagine how to love him, or to be in love with him. you can love someone from a distance, love them only after you thought you knew them. you can be in love with someone without knowing anything about them at all. you can love someone made of tree shadows and konbini lights, the last exhalation of a bottle of pocari, the curve of your fingers and the light slipping through them. he doesn't have to love you back, you think. but you'd like to imagine, briefly, what it might be like to have him stand at your side. you want to know how his hands might feel in yours, if his fingers are longer or shorter, if somewhere between your palms both of you might find something to hold onto.

_step four, be brave._  
he is waiting for you, at the train station. even after all this time, you think you still fall in love with him best from a distance, coming into view. but loving him, being in love with him- it is always easier with his hand in yours.

**Author's Note:**

> Any comments and kudos appreciated. <3 you can find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/ewagan)


End file.
